The Mars Balms blog: handmade body care and other musings

The Making of a Red Soap

Red is the ultimate primal colour. It’s a carnal colour. Our associations with the color red seem especially ancient and deeply rooted: fire, blood and food. Did you know that red is the first color a baby can see? That women wearing red are perceived as more sexually attractive? That red makes us hungry?

In my last post I explored the idea of the color red having a scent. Of course, that whole rambling exploration started with wanting to make a red soap and to match that color with a red scent. So let’s start with the colorants.

Natural Red Colorants

At this moment, I know of only two natural red soap colorants: red clay and madder root. I’ve also used iron oxide, which is technically natural, in that it exists in nature. But the kind you buy is made in a lab (using natural clays and heat) in order…